Kandahar Mayor Assassinated, Taliban Take Credit

The second high-profile assassination in Afghanistan this month leaves the spiritual homeland of the Taliban reeling.

The mayor of Kandahar City was killed in a suicide bombing that the Taliban are taking credit for, less than a month after Canadian soldiers left the volatile region. Ghulan Haidar Hameedi was targeted while he presided over a land claim dispute in the bustling city, which is the spiritual homeland of the Taliban. Hameedi's assassination follows that of President Hamid Karzai's half-brother, and points to increasing Taliban success in picking off high-profile, Western-backed politicians as NATO forces prepare for withdrawal by 2014. Canadian soldiers pulled out of Kandahar earlier this month, handing over control of the region to American counterparts.